NEW FIRE DISPATCH SYSTEM PUT ON ICE

Jerry CrimminsCHICAGO TRIBUNE

The Chicago Fire Department`s new, computerized $6 million system for dispatching fire trucks does not work, and the department will mothball it and return to a simpler, more reliable system in use for 100 years, said department officials Friday.

Fire Department spokesman Jerry Lawrence blamed the prime contractor, Motorola Inc., for failing to deliver a dispatch system that was at least as good as the old system.

The new system for dispatching fire trucks to fires began operation a year ago. The equipment, a mixture of radios and computers, was purchased in the late 1970s, several mayors and several fire commissioners ago. Long delays were encountered in putting it to use.

Since the new system went into operation, the Fire Department has experienced frequent delays in dispatching equipment, Lawrence said. No injuries to the public, loss of life or property damage have occurred as a result of the delays, Lawrence said, but a consultant hired by the department said ''some of that might have occurred'' if the department`s dispatch operators had been less capable.

''A lesser group of people would have had considerably more problems with the system,'' said Wallace Mitchell, engineering consultant for Sachs/Freeman Associates, the firm hired a year ago to examine the system supplied by Motorola.

Another member of the consulting firm, Richard Tucker, said the system Motorola delivered ''would be great for taxi dispatch'' or for a smaller fire department. Motorola officials would not comment Friday.

Lawrence said Motorola refuses to discuss any improvements for the new system and has refused to perform basic testing.

Lawrence said the Fire Department has not abandoned completely plans to use the Motorola equipment and to introduce computers to the dispatch process some day. Lawrence said the matter has been referred to city lawyers for possible legal action against Motorola.

The city has paid Motorola $4.9 million for the $6.1 million system, and Motorola is waiting for another payment of $385,000. The city refuses to pay it until the system works, Lawrence said.

The old Fire Department dispatch system, which will soon go back in use, is based on wire-connected loudspeakers, written routines and records and human memory.

There are two dispatch offices for the old system: the main fire alarm office in City Hall and another at 6345 S. Wentworth Ave. Every city firehouse is connected to one of the offices by means of wires and loudspeakers, similar to a school`s public-address system.

The main fire alarm office has four loudspeaker channels and can dispatch units to four different fires at once. The South Side office can dispatch units to two fires at once.

At both offices, dispatchers can talk to any number of firehouses simultaneously and almost instantaneously.

The ''new'' fire alarm office, called the Computer Aided Dispatch Center, is at 543 W. Taylor St. It has one dispatch channel for the North Side and one for the South Side, both of which rely on two-way radios.